New Delhi: Ahead of the Union Budget, India’s emerging private space industry has called on the government to classify space assets as critical infrastructure and step up budgetary allocations to procure products and services from domestic companies, saying stronger state backing is essential for scaling up the sector.
“Being a big anchor customer, I think government support has to be around,” said Awais Ahmed, founder and CEO of Pixxel Space. He said initiatives such as the research, development and innovation fund and the deep-tech fund were positive, but stressed that capital must now begin flowing into capex-heavy businesses that could make India a global leader in space and artificial intelligence.
Industry body Indian Space Association (ISpA) and consultancy firm Deloitte have jointly recommended that space assets be recognised as critical infrastructure to enable access to low-cost, long-term financing.
“Recognising space infrastructure as a distinct infrastructure sub-sector is essential to unlock scale, private investment, and global competitiveness,” ISpA said.
While Indian private companies now have proven capabilities across satellites, launch systems, Earth observation data and ground infrastructure, a lack of assured government demand continues to constrain their ability to scale, the industry body said.
“A formal procurement mandate will anchor industry growth while allowing ISRO to focus on strategic and exploratory missions,” it added. ISpA noted that NASA procures about 80 per cent of its systems from industry, while the European Space Agency follows a 90 per cent industry-led procurement model.
Srinath Ravichandran, founder and CEO of Agnikul Cosmos, said recognising space infrastructure as critical infrastructure could unlock cheaper financing, while rationalising taxes and duties on specialised launch components and reducing Customs GST and indirect taxes for deep tech would ease cost pressures.
He added that deeper, outcome-driven collaboration with ISRO and IN-SPACe, along with clearer long-term procurement visibility, would be equally important. Agnikul Cosmos is preparing for the maiden orbital flight of its Agnibaan launch vehicle to place small satellites in low Earth orbit.
Suyash Singh, co-founder and CEO of GalaxEye, called for targeted fiscal incentives for indigenous satellite manufacturing and payload development, along with expanded government-backed funding pools to de-risk early deployments.
Clarity on long-term procurement policies, particularly for defence and strategic geospatial applications, would help startups plan mission-ready platforms with confidence, Singh said. GalaxEye plans to launch Mission Drishti, a multi-sensor satellite designed to enable all-weather Earth imaging by integrating optical and radar data.
ISpA and Deloitte said space infrastructure underpins telecommunications, defence, navigation, finance, weather forecasting, disaster management and governance. Formal recognition, they said, could enable infrastructure-grade financing, cut the cost of capital by 2–3 percentage points and strengthen national resilience.
ISpA also proposed that ministries, state governments and urban local bodies procure satellite imagery and geospatial data only from empanelled Indian firms, along with tighter geo-tagging and data security norms.
Krishanu Acharya, co-founder and CEO of Suhora Technologies, said targeted measures could accelerate the downstream space economy, including higher defence allocations for satellite data analytics and specialised funds to build skilled talent pipelines for strategic and civilian applications.